Help-U-Book

I used to love this service when I used it. Yeah, you still have to call in yourself but you don’t have to call in and listen to the lines and it’s a lot cheaper than a calling service. But I think they went out of business? Can someone confirm?

Pointless. I forwarded a HUB message to my friends once and by accident forwarded the message back to HUB. I received a rude condescending message back saying they would delete me from their system if i did that again. I told them «sorry it was an accident», but just received another rude message. Poor customer service skills. I also got booked on a film called «stepping high» thru HUB, in which all 20 of us were never paid for. HUB did not want to take any responsibility or help us with this. I met the supposedly original creator of HUB. Apparently his idea was stolen by his «friend» who stole his idea & stated the business without him. Save your money. Most central casting work is put on Facebook now & you can have your smartphone notify you when central casting puts updates up.

They never seem to communicate all of the information to me. I get about ½. Then I spend a lot of time on the phone and when I finally get through, realize I am missing a bunch of important information. Like I needed to wait 4 weeks before calling, or I needed red hair, or stuff like that. I guess you get what you pay for.

I would like to give help u book three and a half stars but Unilocal won’t let me do it.
This is my firsthand consumer experience of help u book.
I signed up for the 1 week free trial of help u book. As part of their sign-​up process they have you e-​mail them your name, the number «VII», and «HUB Abbreviations». They also ask you what dates the HUB texts are for, (the next weekday unless specified otherwise,) the abbreviation if no ethnicity is specified, («no ethnicity»,) when you can work on Scandal again, (never unless for the same category,) and what no RWB means, (no red, white or black cars). The abbreviations are also listed on their website.
Help u book costs $ 15 a month, that means $ 180 a year, which is significantly cheaper than between $ 720 to $ 948 a year for a «traditional» calling service. (You do of course have to call in or submit for work yourself though.) If you are spending $ 80 or more a month and are only doing background work then you are spending too much money.
(One puzzling thing that help u book does is to charge extra money if you want texts for both union and non-​union roles, even though SAG-​AFTRA members are not allowed to do non-​union background work according to SAG-​AFTRA rules.)
Help u book has a few disadvantages, however all of them are minor.
Help u book only sends texts for casting notices that Central and Jeff Olan put on their lines and social networking pages, and not for any roles where for example people would be called directly. However, particularly outside of when the network tv shows are on «hiatus» (May and June), Central puts out a lot of casting notices, especially for non-​union roles.
There is only a short amount of time, about a few minutes between when Central puts out casting notices, and help u book sends out texts. Their texts also come soon after Central’s tweets, in case you don’t get the tweets from Central on your cellphone.
Help u book stops texting at 7pm (8pm on Fridays), but the vast majority of casting notices are put out before then. You can of course check the lines yourself after help u book closes.
There are only a few shows that help u book doesn’t send out texts for (e.g. American Horror Story, CSI, Glee, Modern Family, The Neighbors, The Newsroom, and True Blood, because the agencies that cast these shows usually don’t put casting notices on their hotlines.
Help u book is the most innovative service out there in my opinion. It doesn’t give out information that’s different from what’s on Central’s lines, it is NOT a scam, and is better and cheaper than Extras Management; check out my review of Extras on their Unilocal page.
Although help u book isn’t quite as good as a few people say it is, it is worth considering, particularly for people where casting notices that they can submit to are sporadically on Central’s lines.

Wow I just joined and realize I should have joined HUB sooner. It is so easy to join and very efficient. As a union actor, I value my time. No I really respect my time
& HUB helps me organize myself to get work in the most efficient manner.
I am learning a lot from them about the BG world, far more when I would call the lines randomly.
I love how I get texts that match my type so all I need to do is submit. On the second day after I joined, I got work. I love how the CD is also mentioned & it makes my life easier.
HUB takes the leg work away and makes it easy to stay on top of things and have a competitive edge over those masses calling in the lines.
I am fortunate to have finally joined & really grateful I just took the leap of faith to do the monthly setup versus the free 5 day trial. It is well worth the price because time to me is more precious than money. I have realized that booking this way saves me so much effort.
HUB beats the high price of joining any service. I love how they are striving to improve their access to other jobs as well. I know I am in good hands when I am able to book myself with the assistance of HUB. I find they are professional from the start requesting new members to read and follow their instructions and know certain terminology. They even start every morning with a wonderful greeting that they are doing the work to find jobs and not to worry… how gracious is that! Also they remind members before the end of the day to submit for the following day.
HUB is great all around. Customer service is par excellent. I enjoy the texts keeping me up to date and knowledgeable about who is casting what (you better bet I am selective about who to work for). And even if lines are busy, I know I did my best to submit for the job as it comes on the line.
HUB offers piece of mind and is definitely worth the investment of $ 15/​month. I know I will be working on a more regular basis and I love how I know I will be making more money.

If you are looking for a service that treats you with respect HUB is not for you. If you are looking for a service that understands their clients HUB is not for you. If you are looking for a service that that has a sense of humor HUB is not for you. If you are looking for a service with basic humanity HUB is not for you. In other words, if you have a heartbeat HUB is not for you.

I have used
for almost 2 years, and I consider them to be my best money spent on getting background acting jobs.
If I get a text for a job I want, I start calling. If I don’t get through in 10 minutes of calling, I don’t worry that maybe I should hang up and start calling the info line. If a better job comes in, I will see it pop up as a text on my phone from H.U.B.
Before H.U.B. — I call the info line, skipping through jobs that don’t match me, finally finding a job I want. DILEMMA #1: should I hang up on the info line and start calling on the job, or keep listening in case there’s a «better» job and possibly miss out on the first one. So I start calling the casting line for a job and after 10 minutes I (and 1000s of others) am still getting a busy-​signal. DILEMMA #2: Should I keep dialing or should I give up on that job, and call the info line again, hoping to get through (info line is ALSO busy-​busy-​busy), and possibly miss the job I was calling on… and so on and on.
NOTE: I don’t depend 100% on ANY of the services I use to HELP ME find acting jobs. That would put me on the same «level» playing field with everyone else. I want work and I go after it.
I know I can call the info line to see what’s up… if I can get through the busy-signals…and I know that H.U.B. is doing that for me when I’m not.
When I’m calling a casting number on a job I was texted via H.U.B. I know if a better job comes in, I will get a text from H.U.B. without giving up on the job I’m calling for.
I also have a calling service that tends to book me later in the day if I haven’t found myself a booking yet.
Both H.U.B. and my calling service have given me access to jobs with casting agencies with whom I am not registered.
I spend about $ 150/​month on different services to help me find, select and book both background and principal roles. That easily doubles the work I would get without them. If I had to keep just one service, I would keep Help-​U-​Book. It’s the biggest no-​brainer in the BG business.
Yesterday was a slow day for casting texts, but I just got booked on a 3-​day call I submitted for several days ago, based on a H.U.B. text I received. At the AFTRA basic rate on that show, the gig will pay for 23 months of H.U.B.
Sweet.
(I am a bit reluctant to post this, because I know I have an edge over those who don’t use H.U.B., but I recommend them all the time to my fellow-​actors.)

Scam, scam, scam
I did their free trial. For the first day it was okay, i got a lot of texts sometime 9 – 10 min after central had already put it up on Facebook which by then means the line is all tied up and you can’t get through anyway. Then the next day central put 2 jobs up on Facebook an HOUR earlier. I looked at my phone, and I hadn’t gotten the texts about it from help u book. So I emailed them to say someone dropped the ball this morning and didnt notify us customers via text that there were 2 jobs we could have applied for. I emailed their
and
and no one ever responded to me. So later that day i put my same email up on their facebook page which they promptly took down. So they have time to take down a Facebook post from an unhappy customer but they don’t have time to check Central’s Facebook to see if new jobs are posted? So this morning I didn’t get any new texts from help u book and emailed them again to ask what was wrong. They sent me an email back saying they could no longer provide me with service. Without giving a reason why. So I emailed them and asked them why and here’s what they said:
after your feedback via email and on Facebook, it seemed you were obviously not a fan of our services. We work hard and get great feedback from a number of subscribers, but we also understand that our service won’t work for some.
To that extent, we conceded based on your communications to us that HelpUBook wasn’t something you were interested in having as a paid service.
Thankfully, this is what the trial is there to expose and respectfully, we don’t intend to have customers who feel so underwhelmed by our efforts.
Thanks for giving us a try and best of luck in all your future endeavors.
Thanks,
Help-​U-​Book
So basically if you complain about their services they’ll just cancel your service without telling you. Ive NEVER in my life heard of a company that does that. What ever happened to the customer is always right, or at the very least keeping an open mind for room for improvement. Nope, not at help u book. Just keep your mouth shut and don’t complain. As far as I know they’re the
only company providing this service so they’re kind of monopolizing the market, and
they can get away with really bad customer service. I would love to bring my service elswhere to a similar company. I hope another company like this pops up soon with more instant notification, to give them some competition.
Why would I pay for a service if I just have to call in and log into fb myself every 5
min anyway?

I really like Help-​U-​Book (HUB). I did the 5-​day trial and then signed up. They text me all the work that fits my category from Central Casting — so I don’t have to spend all day calling Central Casting to see what’s available. This is really a timesaver. Because of the HUB texts, I was able to get two Central Casting jobs last week. Getting thru to Central Casting is already hard enough, but at least with the texts I can start calling as soon as I know about a job I want — that gives me at least a little bit of edge. The only reason I left off a star is because I wish HUB would send texts from a lot of different sources — not just Central Casting. I think they send texts from Jeff Olan and Sandi Alessi if your’e already signed up with them, but I’m not sure. In any event, I’m still very happy with the HUB service.

I am Extras Mgt’s happiest client. But my hoopdie got sick last week and is in need of a major surgery that I cannot afford right now. So I put my EM account on hold and decided to try booking myself. This way I have control over my limited travel situation. I’m lucky enough to live walking distance from 4 major studios. I was all ready to pay then saw I could select a Free 5-​day Trial! How awesome is that :) Signed up late last night and my phone started going off with text msgs this am. Saw an avail job on my favorite show. Called (busy) called again and got through and booked it! Yay for me!!!
Whatever your situation I highly suggest signing up for the 5-​day Free Trial. I mean, you can’t beat the price right? As of this review after the free trial, the service is only $ 15 a month.
I would also suggest making sure to have a spare cell phone charger to keep in your go-​bag. You’re going to be getting mms throughout the day. A dead cell phone isn’t going to get you booked on anything!
I’ll prob go back to my calling service when my car is out of the hospital. But when I use a service that actually delivers what it promises I can’t help but take the time to give it a positive review. I use My Simple Mobile which is the ugly step-​child of T-​Mobile towers. So I’m using one of the crappier services and still getting my texts right away. The name of the CD is right there and I just touch the phone number and I’m calling in for the job! BAM! If you prefer booking yourself on jobs I can’t think of an easier way to do it :)